Two men have been stabbed after a fight in West London as the capital’s knife epidemic continues to spiral out of control.
The men, aged 37 and 26, were involved in a brawl in West Kensington on Monday afternoon, Metropolitan Police confirmed.
A knife was pulled during the fight on Ivatt Place, W14, shortly after 3.30pm and an air ambulance was called to the scene.
Two men were stabbed during a fight at Ivatt Place (pictured), West Kensington, on Monday
The 26-year-old’s injuries are not thought to be life-changing or life-threatening. The 37-year-old man is being treated in hospital.
One Twitter user, Hywel Jones posted: ‘My son past the scene of a stabbing today in Kensington. He was shocked to see the victim with neck wounds but the life savers @LDNairamb arrived bringing all the skills required.’
‘Prayers for the victim,’ he added.
A Met Police spokesman said: ‘Police were called at 1537hrs on Sunday, 24 June, to reports of a fight in Ivatt Place, W14.
This picture was uploaded by a witness who said one of the victims was stabbed in the neck
‘Officers attended along with London Ambulance Service A 37-year-old man and a 26-year-old man were found suffering stab injuries.
‘Both have been taken by ambulance to hospital. We await an assessment of the 37-year-old’s condition; the younger man has sustained injuries which are not life-threatening or life-changing.
‘CID officers based at Hammersmith and Fulham are investigating. There has been no arrest at this stage,’ he added.
Violent crime in Britain’s capital soared by 21 per cent last year, with 1.3 million offences recorded by police. Knife crime rose by 22 per cent.
There have been more than 70 killings in London this year, many of them stabbings, and at one point the capital’s murder rate was higher than that of New York.
Scotland Yard published figures last week showing that only one in ten knife robberies and fewer than a quarter of violent crimes involving a bladed weapon were solved in London last year.
An array of knives collected at Bethnal Green Police Station by police officers, including an enormous blade with its handle wrapped up seemingly to improve the grip (centre)
The number of knifepoint robberies resulting in anyone being punished has dropped from 20 per cent in 2015 to just 11 per cent in 2017.
Last year there was a total of 80 fatal stabbings in the capital – the most in almost a decade.
Official figures show that 2017 was the worst year for knife deaths among young people since at least 2002.
Forty-six people aged 25 or under were stabbed to death in London, up by 21 compared with the previous year, according to police figures.
Britain’s knife crime epidemic has also spread to the Home Counties, with stabbings now more likely in Bedfordshire than in Merseyside.
Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Warwickshire, Norfolk and north Wales’ rates of knife crime have all increased by more than 100 per cent in the past three years.
Three people were arrested after this knife was seized from a group of youths in Lewisham